Today saw the release of the new Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Crash and Burn one-shot from Dark Horse Comics, and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this follow up to The High Republic Adventures – Crash Landing.
It’s been over five months since the release of Crash Landing, so I hope writer Daniel José Older will forgive me for needing a bit of a refresher (via Wookieepedia) before I could fully understand what was going on at the beginning of The High Republic Adventures – Crash and Burn. I had recalled that defected Nihil agent Krix Kamerat had once again gone rogue and piloted a stolen ship to the marauders’ flagship the Gaze Electric, but I had almost completely forgotten everything going on with Alys “Crash” Ongwa and her ragtag crew made up of friends and family members. So Crash and Burn opens on Corellia, where Crash is sifting through the smoldering wreckage of her clan’s ancestral home, looking for the seeds that had sprouted into the beloved tree that protected them over the ages. She’s approached by another ex-Nihil named Bledloe Seven, who tells her about Krix’s plan to assassinate Marchion Ro after getting back in the Eye’s good graces, and together with Crash’s reluctant crew they begin to make their way toward the Gaze Electric themselves.
Meanwhile on the aforementioned Nihil flagship, Krix attempts to reingratiate himself with the forces serving under Ro, weaving a story that they initially seem to fall for, though the truth catches up to him after he actively repositions the Stormwall, expanding the Occlusion Zone even further. On Crash’s ship, the crew receives a holographic communication from the Force-sensitive non-Jedi Zeen Mrala, who informs them that the planet Eriadu has now become enveloped within the O.Z., and pleads for help in any way they can provide. But first they have to pick up Kamerat from the Gaze Electric, and here we get a really fun propaganda-style splash page essentially spelling out the lies that Crash has been helping to spread about Krix in order to beef up his status among the Nihil. Then Older and artist Nick Brokenshire cut back to the reality of Kamerat sprinting away from his former comrades, alongside the “inside man” Crank Flat. But Krix double-crosses Flat at the last second, hip-checking him to the ground just before boarding Crash’s ship and jumping into hyperspace with its crew.
Next we get a bit of a mutiny among Crash’s team, as they become increasingly fed up with her willingness to participate in Kamerat’s precariously risky plans. And at first it seems as though Ongwa decides to follow through on joining Krix in his next attempt on Marchion Ro’s life, but along the way she makes the call to eject Kamerat out an airlock and instead take the supplies inside a hijacked Nihil hauler to those in need on Eriadu. It’s a touching twist, but it’s also one that apparently ends with Krix Kamerat blown to bits by his own explosive device in a botched assassination– a dark ending for a conflicted character, to be sure. But Crash seems to find her own happiness helping her friends, and her crew accepts her decision to make amends with open arms. This feels like an ending (for now, at least) for Crash and the gang, and I would say it’s a fairly satisfying one. Older keeps things moving at a brisk, energetic pace, and Brokenshire’s art– accentuated by Michael Atiyeh’s color work– matches the tone of this story quite well. I’m curious whether or not we’ll see more of this crew as The High Republic Phase III races toward its conclusion, but if not, I can say that I enjoyed the handful of rousing adventures we got to go along with them on.
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Crash and Burn is available now wherever comic books are sold.